An optoelectronical method for inter-process monitoring of flank wear of cutting tools is presented. The method is based upon real-time vision technology in which the tool is illuminated by a beam of laser and then the image of wear zone is taken by a vidicon camera. The image is converted to a series of digital pixel data and processed through an algorithm specially developed for measurement of wear land width. Two image processing methods for detection of the tool wear profile and width are presented. The first one is for obtaining more accurate profile of wear land at the expense of more processing time and the other is for obtaining the only wear land width more effectively for in-situ application.
Detailed aspects of the prototype measurement system built for experiment are described, and test results are discussed. As conclusions, it is proved that the methods are effective especially for industrial applications with a measuring accuracy of 0.01mm.
